Maloofs Talked To Mastrov About Kings Last Summer

The outgoing owners of the Sacramento Kings had the team on the market long before they agreed to sell to a Seattle group in January. Mark Mastrov says it was part of the road he took to becoming a Kings minority owner.

Mark Mastrov is one of the incoming owners. He says he met with the Maloofs last summer about possibly buying the team and that he and other investors had talked as far back as a year-and-a-half.

Mastrov was briefly the lead investor in the group that would successfully bid to keep the team from leaving for Seattle. Now, he says he was happy to turn over control to Vivek Ranadive.

"Vivek wanted to be the number one and it was very clear that was what was most interesting to him. I felt he’d be a great owner, I thought he’d do a phenomenal job. From that day forward, I basically took a back to that man. I’d follow him anywhere. He’s a phenomenal, phenomenal human being.”

Mastrov talked about the road to becoming a part owner of the Kings at last night’s rally. He says he would consider another opportunity to become a majority owner if it were to come up.

The new owners expect to take control of the team next week, after a vote by the National Basketball Association's owners.